Expendable
by Reidfan
Summary: Sequel to Sabor. Reid and Sophie stumble on a woman who died with a strange green discharge in her throat, a cocktail of vitamins found in her purse, will they be able to get to the bottom of this strange case or will this case be too big for the BAU?
1. Chapter 1

Expendable: Sequel to Sabor

Chapter 1.)

Reid is excited about Sophie moving to D.C, and in the middle of a date they are walking through the capitol city when they see a woman lying on the street, she is dead, bloody and a green substance is oozing from her mouth. Reid and Sophie immediately call the team, and the a medical examiner who happens to be Sophie's ex, Max Noble. Reid feels supremely jealous because the ex is strong, all American type and he is still in love with Sophie.

"So what did you think of the movie Dr. Reid?' Sophie was teasing him, knowing how much it bugged him to be called Doctor.

"You're just intent on making me tell you aren't you? Well you'll be happy to know I find no trace of the protagonist appealing, I mean a man who is constantly changing sexual partners greatly increases the potential of disease and to me that's just not sexy." Reid looked at her, she was giggling. "What, what's so funny?" he was afraid he'd said something wrong.

"Spencer, you're the only person I know who can think of Casanova, not as a great lover but as a health risk." She was giggling but when she saw the look of embarrassment on his face she added. "I love that about you, you see things no one else does." To seal her point she gently placed her hand in his, you could almost feel Spencer Reid swell with pride as they past people in the street. They were headed to Sophie's apartment in Georgetown, Reid had told her to look in this district because the crime rates were so low, he had conveniently left out the fact that he lived just one block away, he thought that might seem a bit clingy this early on.

"Do you think you might what to stay over tonight? We could carpool tomorrow, you know go green?" Sophie was hoping of enticing the shy doctor to spend the night, since that night in San Jose, he'd seemed almost afraid to broach the subject, let alone make a move. She wanted to reassure him that it was all right, that she really did care about him. "Spencer?" He was looking straight over her head and at something in the dark, he had that look on his face she becoming familiar with.

"Do you see that? Is that someone on the ground? Call a medic, I think she's breathing." Reid rushed over to a shape Sophie could barely make out in the dark. She walked toward him as he hunched over the poor woman trying to resuscitate her. She dialed 911. "This is Special Agent Segura I need a bus to 3244 M Street on the north west corner, female victim approximately 25-30, about 140 pounds, possible overdose, no response to verbal or physical stimuli." Sophie was rattling off everything she could think of to make sure the medics had what they needed to save this girl. Reid was on the ground trying to administer CPR when he realized there was some kind of green liquid oozing from her, he couldn't give her mouth to mouth, but if this girl didn't get oxygen she was going to die, the pulse was thready as it was. "Sophie do you have any condoms in your purse?" he blurted it out. "What?" she did but she hardly saw how safe sex was anything to be concerned about right this moment. "I need one to give her mouth to mouth, she had some kind of green discharge and I don't know what it is." Sophie did have several prophylactics on her and tore open the package, made a pinhole so he could breathe life back into the girl without risking his own. _"Well I guess being prepared doesn't always mean what you think it does."_ She thought to herself.

Finally the beautiful sounds of sirens could be heard blaring up the small street and within moments the medics had on an oxygen mask on the girl and got her in the back of the ambulance. "We should ride in with her, just to make sure." Reid looked at her pleadingly, he knew he didn't have to ask Sophie would've gone anyway, neither one of them could just leave it alone. "We'll follow, where are you taking her?" Sophie barked at the head medic. "Georgetown U, be there in three minutes, she's breathing on her own but it's hard and heavy, we have to get here out of here." He looked at Sophie almost like asking permission; Reid noticed a lot of people looked at her like that. "Understood, we'll be right behind you." Reid was already car sick thinking about the car ride he was in for. "Spencer get in!" she had already unlocked the silver open air Jeep she drove, she was definitely a Northern California girl, no one who grew up on the east coast would drive around in something like this, when it snowed. He hopped in and held on for dear life, as Sophie sped around corners, cut off poor unsuspecting motorists as she tried to keep up with the ever speeding ambulance. A hair pin turn and three harrowing left turns later, they were in the parking lot of Georgetown University's hospital.

Reid hadn't realized that he'd been gripping the seat so hard that his nail marks were left as an impression in the upholstery. Sophie hopped out of the Jeep and was running towards the entrance when she realized Spencer wasn't with her, so she doubled back. Reid was still sitting there in her Jeep, breathing very slowly. "Spencer, come on! We have to go see the surgeon before they give her anything!" He snapped to attention at the sound of her voice and started jogging with her toward the entrance. "You drive like a maniac!" He shouted over the sirens in the distance. "Well we got here didn't we?" she shouted back.

"Who is the attending?" Reid had stopped a bewildered nurse. "Dr. Sanchez, he's right over there." Reid and Sophie saw a man in his late thirties jogging along with the medics to the operating room, Reid began after him. "Dr. Sanchez, this woman had some kind of green discharge from her mouth, I'm not sure what substance could have caused it." The doctor looked at Reid and Sophie, and asked "Did it smell sweet? Could it have been anti-freeze?" Reid searched his memory, he couldn't remember. "I'm not sure, it could have been, but this was sea green foam oozing from her mouth and it was coming from her throat into her mouth. The doctor nodded and continued into the operating room.

"Could it have been anti-freeze Spencer? Why would anyone drink that, it's excruciating, causes renal failure over hours." Reid never ceased to be amazed at home much knowledge this woman had at her command. "I don't know, I can't remember what it smelled like. Someone could have forced her to take it, but why? As painful as it is, as long as she got to a hospital in a couple of hours she'd be okay. Anti-freeze wouldn't have incapacitated her." Reid looked at Sophie, and she finished his thought for him. "Unless someone gave her a laced dose of a narcotic, she wasn't expecting it and thinking she just got bad stuff she laid down to sleep it off, not knowing she'd been poisoned." Reid looked worried. "But why would a dealer give their own customer bad product, that can't be good for business. This feels like it was personal, to put someone through that much pain on purpose?" They were in the waiting room for three hours, the girl had been taken to surgery. Sophie had just gotten back with coffee. Their eyes both focused on the doctor coming towards them, his head down and looking somber. The girl hadn't made it, they didn't need him to tell them. "Agent Segura?" the doctor asked. "Yes. Dr. Sanchez this is Dr. Spencer Reid he found the poor girl and administered CPR." The doctor looked at Reid and secretly wondered how he'd gotten so lucky as to draw Sophie as a partner. "Dr. Reid I was to reassure you that everything you could have done, was done, we don't know what the green discharge was, it was not anti-freeze and testing is being done right now to determine the nature of the toxin, we don't believe this woman was on any narcotics." Reid and Sophie both raised their eyebrows. "She wasn't an addict?" Reid asked. "We couldn't find any needle marks or any other evidence of usage. I've called the medical examiner, woken him up actually I didn't want this to wait." The doctor looked worried, Sophie knew something was wrong, something he wasn't telling them. "I'll have the medical examiner contact you tomorrow morning at your office. I have to get back to the ER." Reid shook his hand. "We understand doctor, we'll be in touch."

Sophie wanted to ask more questions, get to the bottom of this, Reid could tell. _"She's just like me, she can't help it."_ He thought. Reid motioned Sophie over as she was about to stop the doctor. "I don't think we're going to get anything else out of him tonight." She looked like a lioness with her curly hair and Revelon red lipstick. "Did you see how scared he was? He's definitely not telling us something, what is he hiding, what does he know, has he seen it before? We need to know Spencer!" She was shouting in whispers. "I'm a profiler, remember? I noticed all those things too and believe me I want those questions answered, but maybe it would be a better idea for us to go talk to the medical examiner? The good doctor did say he was on his way?" Sophie cracked a smile, "_He's becoming more devious every day, just like me_."

They took the elevator down to the basement where the morgue was situated. The ride was long and Reid was more than a little uncomfortable in such tight spaces, Sophie noticed how uncomfortable he looked so she decided to give him one good memory in an elevator. She took his hand and wrapped one of his arms around her waist, while she let her other hand creep up the back of his head and pulled him down towards her, she kissed him like she was searching for buried treasure. Reid left the elevator out of breath but this time it was definitely not out of fear, he hadn't thought about a single bad statistic on that ride. Sophie was glowing with accomplishment and was completely unprepared for what happened next.

The medical examiner had already arrived and was doing a preliminary inspection of the Jane Doe, when he lifted his head to see who had interrupted his exam he broke into a huge grin. "Sophie Segura! Oh my god, how long has it been? You look gorgeous as ever, is this your new partner?" The tall, all American featured man with the chiseled arms and huge biceps extended his hand to Reid, who immediately took a dislike to him. Sophie had to nudge Reid with her elbow, "Max! How good to see you again! This is Special Agent Dr. Reid with the BAU, Dr. Reid this is Dr. Max Noble." Reid felt himself trying to exert more pressure than was necessary for a cordial greeting. Sophie could feel the tension; she hadn't known Max had moved to the D.C. area. "Dr. Reid and I looking into this girl's death, we suspect foul play. Have you found anything suspicious so far?" Sophie was desperately hoping Max wouldn't bring up any more of the past. But she wasn't that lucky. "No, I haven't found anything to support foul play yet, but I have to wait for a toxicology report and that won't be done until tomorrow afternoon, I can tell you she was a cocktail of vitamins, they were in her purse. So where have you been all this time stranger? Last I saw you, we were on that beach in Santa Cruz, and your wet suit…" Sophie had to cut him off. "I've been really busy with work, got promoted to organized crime unit in Quantico, looks like you moved on to better things too, Georgetown huh? That must have made your dad jump for joy." Sophie was trying hard to take the emphasis of the conversation off the fact that Max and she had history, this was not lost on Reid. "Yeah he threw one of his silly country club parties, you know the Captain. So organized crime unit huh? You must be so incredibly busy these days, too busy to come out for a drink tomorrow." Max asked suavely hoping with all his might she would say yes, he had never forgotten her, she had been the one to get away and he had never really gotten over her. The way he looked at Sophie sent Reid over the edge with jealousy and he was secretly finding every fault he could. _"Entitled alpha male personality, gym addicted probably a health nut, monied I wonder why she left him in the first place?" _Then a sudden wave of terror came over Reid, he didn't want to lose her before they even began. Sophie saw Reid shooting daggers at Max who didn't notice he was too busy gazing at Sophie. "My case load is so heavy right now Max, but you'll get those results to us first thing right?" She was trying to steer Reid out the door, but he wouldn't budge. "Sure Sophie, it was so good to see you again, truly it was and it was great to meet you Dr. Reid." Max extended his hand again to Reid who reluctantly took it after being nudged in the ribs by Sophie.

The elevator ride back to the surface was much less enjoyable and much tenser. It was Sophie who felt like the walls were closing in on her. "He's an old friend from the Bay Area, we went to high school together and ended up in San Francisco a few years ago." She took a chance and gave Reid a side long glance trying to judge the waters. "So you guys were..?" Reid couldn't even finish the sentence. "It was a long time ago Spencer and it wasn't serious." Sophie wanted to reassure him but before she could say another word Reid went off. "He certainly thinks you were pretty serious, did you see the way he looked at you? With his stupid muscle shirt and alpha male ego just being thrown around all over the place." Reid was feeling seriously threatened by the fact that Sophie had not divulged the nature of their relationship and he couldn't help wonder if that was to protect them from scrutiny or if she was trying to leave the door open for someone else. The ride back to Sophie's apartment was eerily silent, Reid knew he was being ridiculously juvenile about this whole thing, but he couldn't help it, when it came to Sophie he was falling in love and he was afraid he might be falling faster than she was. When they finally reached her apartment she thought she'd take a chance. "Spence, come on spend the night, get some sleep and we'll figure this out in the morning." He looked at her and melted when the deep honey brown eyes met his. "_She had invited him right? Not that ridiculous over aged surfer, she liked him right?"_ She didn't say another word but held his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze and jumped out of the jeep. He was still sitting in the car when he remembered something Max had said, the girl had a cocktail of vitamins in her purse, he wondered what kind, he'd be sure to ask in the morning, it would give him a chance to find out more about _Dr. Noble_, ugh it sounded bad even in his head. He opened the door, Sophie was waiting for him and they made their way upstairs to her comfortable furnished apartment. The first thing Reid noticed when he walked in was how clean everything smelled, not hospital sterile clean but fresh clean like everything had just been laundered. They made their way to the bedroom and Reid noticed abstract art on the wall mixed with reproductions of classics like Starry Night, he was always being surprised by her. She hadn't bothered to turn on the light, instead she held Reid by his hands and placed his hands on her body, directing them over her curves, teasing him, not letting them roam free. She spoke no words, only letting out sighs here and there to let him know she was enjoying his touch. His mind was soon wiped clean of anything else but the sweet spicy scent of her skin as he inhaled her, her hair, her body, all of her. Neither one of them spoke a word, they didn't have to, they were connected in the most sacred way people can be, they were in their universe, in their reality and no one else's.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'm trying to update as soon as possible but creative juices just aren't flowing so well these days. Short chapter, but will update soon! Please Read and Review, just remember I'm a sensitive soul.

**Chapter 2- Toxic**

When they arrived at the Quantico garage Sophie headed to her 5th floor office, she was the new Unit Chief for the organized crime division and had a mountain of paperwork to familiarize herself with. Reid hated to say goodbye and neither one of them were foolish enough to believe a hug would go unnoticed, so they comforted themselves by smiling and waving.

As the elevator door closed, Reid was trying to prepare himself for the numerous cases left on his desk. No matter how many cases they cleared, it seemed there was always someone in desperate need of their help, he hadn't been able to get that girl from last night out of his head, he couldn't help but feel guilty about last night, he should have been working on who this girl was, what had happened to her. _'Is this thing with Sophie, whatever it is, affecting my work? Is the distraction affecting my reason?'_ Reid could deal with the monsters in the dark; he couldn't deal with having someone to lose. He was woken from his thought when Morgan came into the break room for coffee.

"Hey kid, have a good time last night?" Morgan had on his Cheshire cat grin, Reid panicked and knew he couldn't lie. "Yeah, we went to the movies." He was trying to desperately sound nonchalant. "Yeah I saw you two, I had a date myself, took her to the movies and who should I see but the Doctors Reid and Segura three rows ahead of us, I also know you headed towards Sophie's townhouse. Chelsea from counter terrorism lives on the same block but we had to make a little detour before we could catch up with you guys. Did you get yourself some spicy salsa last night?." Morgan chuckled to himself. Reid was now feeling a bit exposed. Reid took a giant gulp of coffee and barley managed to get out an embarrassed "Shut up." Before JJ appeared to call them into the conference room. "Guys, you're gonna need to see this. It's bad." JJ looked worried and solemn.

After JJ had assembled the team, she went on "Jessica Lorcal left home in 2003 according to her mother. She had a roommate who reported her missing several weeks ago. According to the roommate Shelly Long, Jessica had a serious drug addiction and had been arrested dozens of times for prostitution. Shelly said that Jessica had come into a lot of money recently, she had gone to the clinic to get tested and was talking about giving up her profession. Then she went missing and turned up last night in downtown D.C., the M.E. says her lungs filled up with this liquid. He also said she had been taking a large amount of vitamins."

On the screen lay a woman with green foam coming out of her mouth. Reid's head began spinning. This was not the same woman from last night. "I've seen this, last night ,after the movie Sophie and I were walking home, we came across another woman who had this green foam coming from her throat, the ER doctor couldn't save her. The doctor said she also had a cache of vitamins in her purse. We're waiting for toxicology reports." Reid had not meant to say "we" This pronoun usage did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team. Morgan spoke up. "JJ, how do we know this isn't just an overdose or medical complications from mixing vitamins with prescriptions? Why do they need us?"

JJ clicked to the next screen, it was a close up of the victims' neck, even from across the room you could see the puncture mark. "The toxicology report for Jessica revealed she had been administered an unknown toxic substance only a couple hours before she died. They don't know what the toxin is, but the lab believes it to be a biological toxin." Garcia had slipped into the door in the middle of the briefing. She looked up at the screen again and then to JJ. "Do they think someone is testing some biological weapon on these women?" JJ's face became a picture of seriousness, "They lab technician is from Homeland Security, he said he's never seen a sample so deadly or complex, they just don't know what it is." Reid was trying to go over every known toxin in his head, this was an engineered bio-weapon, it had to have signatures, clues to its origins. "What vitamins did Jessica have in her purse?" JJ looked down at the file jacket, "Calcium, folate, vitamin C, and iron tablets. Thos are all…" Reid interrupted her "Prenatal vitamins, were these women pregnant?" JJ looked over the report again. "There's no mention of pregnancy in her file."

Hotch entered the room looking more somber than usual "This has just become a national security matter." Sophie was following behind him into the room. She made no effort at formalities but went straight into what she knew.

"I just got off the phone with the chief medical examiner at Georgetown University, he just received the toxicology report for the girl last night, he couldn't identify the poison used to kill her. But a puncture mark consistent with the previous victim was found on the left side of her neck. Her name was Heather Williamson working girl just like our other vic, until two months ago when the girls she used to stick close to on McPherarson Square say, she disappeared bragging about coming into a large sum of cash. She had prenatal vitamins in her purse but according to the M.E. wasn't pregnant. We checked to see if she had any kind of account, but no luck. Whoever this guy is, he's taking junkies, cleaning them up and then killing them with a biological weapon. Max thinks it might be a botched attempt at creating a new version of anthrax, some genetic markers of anthrax are present in the biological profile, but why and for what purpose we don't know yet." Hotch had gone from somber to grim. "Homeland security has been informed and they have instructed us to let this go no further than this room, I don't have to tell you the sensitive nature of this kind of information, no press, no leaks, no one outside this room is to know about this case, if word got out that someone may be in possession of weaponized anthrax, it could start a nation wide panic."

Prentiss chimed in first "Does Homeland Security believe this guy is a threat or is he an unsub with a lab who gets off on painful and exotic ways of killing people?"

"If this guy has access to anthrax chemicals then, doesn't that narrow our suspect pool considerably? I mean they don't just let anyone with a paypal account buy this stuff right?" Morgan looked at Reid for reassurance.

"That isn't necessarily true, anthrax can be contracted from animals or animal hides imported from over seas, given the right equipment and an internet connection this type could be weaponized and used as a terrorist threat here." Reid looked back at the picture of the unfortunate girl, just lying there silently begging them all to help her.

"What is it Spence? What's bugging you about this?" JJ knew when her friend had that look in his eyes, it was usually while he calculating statistics in his head and came to the conclusion that something didn't compute.

"Why the vitamins? Why keep these women healthy if only to test a weapon designed to kill them? Have they been tested yet?" Before he could finish his though Sophie had picked up the phone to the lab. "This is SSA Segura, I need the contents of Heather Williamsons' purse bagged and tested, I understand they're labeled, we just have to be certain. Thank you." She looked up at the rest of Reid's team. "Those vitamins are most likely high grad antibiotics, the ME wouldn't know to look for that, those toxicology reports look for poisons, toxins, alcohol and drugs, things that would hurt you, a high dosage of antibiotics would go undetected in a normal autopsy." Reid had an unnerving feeling that Sophie knew quite a lot about ME and their techniques, he tried to put it out of his mind. "And he would be giving them high levels to test it's potency, to make sure the normal dosage of antibiotics wouldn't work. The unsub could be trying to create a super strain of anthrax."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- Demon Slayers**

A/N: Sophie and Spencer's first disagreement, if only it didn't involve a psychopathic murderer.

_"Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I'm not sure that man needs the help."_

Max Noble had been brought in by Homeland Security as a consultant, he was the leading pathologist in his field and had been recruited to Georgetown as an expert in contagious diseases. He stood in the FBI lab, uneasy when he saw the results of the tests run on the vitamins, in each case the victims had been given high grade antibiotics and even Cipro. "I need to speak to Sophie Segura right away." He hung up the receiver and in classic Sophie fashion she had was ahead of the game and walking down the hall before he could pour himself a second cup of tea.

"Max, what did you find?" Sophie wasted not time. He noticed she wasn't alone, that lanky, funny looking Agent was with her, he wondered if it was her partner.

"The thing is these are high grade antibiotics, not something you get at your local drugstore, these women probably thought they were getting fertility treatments, that would be consistent with the prenatal vitamins. I went back to the autopsy reports and both women had high levels of Cipro in their systems, levels that could only be present in cases of injection, the thing is Sophie that if this guy is producing a super strain it doesn't have any of the usual markers." Max looked from one agent to the other.

"So we don't know if it is Anthrax then?" She was praying that it wasn't but she knew Max and he didn't seem relieved, if anything he looked more worried than ever.

"No we do know it's Anthrax because of the cell damage done to both women is consistent with an Anthrax infection, the thing is Anthrax is usually weaponized by milling it down to the micron, drying the spores and then neutralizing their electric charge, in order to keep the particles from clumping together, but this guy has somehow managed to harness ability of the particles to split, to clone themselves, it's genius." Reid and Sophie both looked at him eyebrows raised.

"I just mean that this guy has found the holy grail of most bio-engineers, he's managed to replicate living cells, to control the rate of duplication even." Max was trying to ignore the eyebrows.

Reid spoke up. "Dr. Noble, who would have this capability, what grade of lab would you need to produce this kind of result?" Reid was watching very carefully how Noble looked Sophie up and down.

"It would have to be someone with access to spores in the first place, they aren't too hard to get, but in order to have viable specimens they would need to be preserved lab grade samples, they would need equipment, space, time and a whole lot of patience, get one step wrong and you would need to scrap the entire project. It only takes 20,000 spores to infect and kill someone. These samples from what I can tell from the damage to respiratory system, are nearly 100 times that. This woman was dead within an hour of being infected, even for Anthrax that's fast."

"Thanks Max, can you send those results to my pda, we need to get back to the last crime scene."

"Sure thing Sophie, hey do you think you're gonna catch this guy? I mean it seems to me that this was just a test run, there could be big trouble ahead."

"The BAU is pretty damn good at what they do Max. I'm just along for the ride on this one and I don't think we could have asked for anyone better than Dr. Reid and his team." Reid glowed with pride as Sophie looked at him as she said the last part, it was just as Max had thought the string bean had a thing for her.

Reid and Sophie wasted no time and headed for the garage. Reid pulled out his cell phone and awaited the familiar jovial voice on the other end.

"Fount of knowledge, check my flow." You could see Garcia's smile through the phone line. "I need you to do something for me." Reid awaited whatever was coming out of that wacky brain of hers. "Only if you tell me how your date went." Garcia knew he would never tell her but it was always fun to mess with Reid. "Absolutely not, but can you run the names of anyone in the area who works at high security labs and cross reference that with anyone currently working on a government project for Homeland Security and maybe start with anyone who has a private fertility practice in the Georgetown area?" He knew this was asking a lot but if anyone could do it, it was Garcia.

"Fine, but I expect full date disclosure when this case is over, Garcia out!" He knew she wasn't really kidding.

"You think this guy is a practicing fertility doctor?" Sophie asked curious.

"I think he either is one or has access to a clinic, the women were all drug addicts who had cleaned up their act and had come into large sums of cash, when you volunteer to become a surrogate they give you multiple injections, a vitamin regimen, and a large lump sum payment to go through with the procedure." Reid looked over at Sophie as she pulled into her street. "These women thought they were going be surrogate mothers and instead get dosed with a super strain of Anthrax? Someone's using prostitutes as test subjects? This a whole new level of evil." Reid couldn't have agreed more but he didn't get the chance to say so, as he saw Morgan approaching the Jeep.

"Do either one of you remember anything unusual about that walk home? See anyone, anything out of place?" Morgan tried to job their memories. Sophie instinctively closed her eyes and tried to remember the details from last night. "Someone was walking behind us, a couple, a white sedan, European maybe a BMW pulled out as we were walking, it seemed in a hurry. I – I can't remember anything else." Reid was quite impressed despite his eidetic memory he hadn't noticed any of those things, all he could remember was the way she laughed, he loved that sound. He decided not to mention this to Morgan.

"I just remember walking North on M and then seeing a large shape in the street ahead of us, it looked like it was breathing, we got closer realized it was the woman and called the medics, she was laying there barely alive." He thought back to the beginning of the movie, that BMW the white one had been parked in front of the theater. He had used the ATM right outside. "Garcia's court of worldly wisdom state your case mortal." _How does she come up with this stuff,_ he wondered.

"Garcia, hey can you check the ATM cameras for the theater on M street for last night, we're looking for a plate number on a late model, white BMW?."

"I'm plugging into the city wide big brother now, junior G man. You'll have a match in 1..2,..3 Yahtzee, and the over priced status symbol belongs to…"Dr. Max Noble, hey where have I heard that name before?" But she never got her answer because he was already making a beeline for Sophie who was standing with Morgan and Prentiss. Reid couldn't believe it, how did he not see this? It all fit, someone with access to a lab, someone with government facilities and technical knowledge, he hadn't liked that over blown Brutus from the beginning and now all that hatred was justified.

"The car came back registered to Max Noble, we need to get an arrest warrant." Reid had already picked up the phone to call Hotch. Morgan and Prentiss unaware of what was going on looked nonplussed. "Whoa, wait a second Spencer, how do you know he wasn't just at the movies, you know like we were? Besides you can't get an arrest warrant on this kind of circumstantial evidence, where's the link?"

"I know you don't want to believe it because you've got history, but he has the know how, the materials and the did you hear him describing the unsub, what were his exact words "genius"? He was extremely interested in what we knew, injecting himself into the investigation, sound pretty suspicious to me. We can get a warrant through the patriot act and hold him until we can find his lab and neutralize the threat." Reid was determined, he knew this was the guy, he admittedly was shocked that Sophie didn't immediately jump on his bandwagon.

"Spencer, I've know Max for over 10 years he couldn't do this to someone. Whoever this guy is, he's treating people like they're disposable, Max isn't like that, we did humanitarian aid work together in college, he helped build a school for orphans in Uganda, do you really think someone like that could do a complete 180 and start killing people off just for the hell of it? I'm telling you he isn't our guy." Sophie could understand jealousy but this was taking it to a whole other level.

Morgan intervened, "Let's stick to what we know. This unsub is organized, calculating, he hunts for women he thinks won't be missed by society, he's well funded both victims were found with over $1,500 on them. He's got access to government grade labs, he's got a background in the medical field and he's testing a super strain of a deadly virus on people who he sees as inferior, he's a narcissist with delusions of grandeur, and on a serious power trip."

"He targets women, and offers them surrogate motherhood. He might be getting back at an absent mother or other detached female in his early life, most likely he's single, well dressed, he wouldn't approach these women as a John, he would have to appear official in order for street savvy women to believe his ruse." Prentiss added.

"He's trolling one of their hang outs, he knows a diner or a hotel where these women congregate, it would be quite a distance away from here, this is his home base, where ke keeps them, he's offering them a way out and someone knows who he is, they've seen him but for some reason didn't go along with it." Reid was searching his internal memory of prostitution arrests in the D.C. area and trying to come up with possibilities but it was Sophie who spoke up.

"He's a doctor right? He's not hanging out a hotel or diner, it's the free clinic three blocks from McPherson Square. It's part of a world network of free clinics for young people with no insurance, sex workers or immigrant women and children, I volunteered as a sex crimes counselor for a chapter back home and when I moved here they asked if I would counsel at this chapter too, that's where he's getting them, he lives or works somewhere around here, but that's where he's choosing his victims."

"He takes them away from a life of despair, shows them the nice side of town and then kills them. What a peach." Prentiss looked more disgusted than ever.

"Let's get Noble's picture and show it around, if he is the guy then someone will have noticed him, he's not exactly a blend into the crowd kind of guy." Reid was adamant.

"I'm telling you Max isn't our guy, he doesn't have a private practice and he's never worked at a fertility clinic, he's specialty has always been in the prevention of infection diseases, not in causing them. Look he's a bit over confident and sometimes pushy but sociopathic killer he is not." Sophie refused to believe that someone she was once close to could be involved in something so direly sinister.

"Sophie, if he isn't the guy then he's got nothing to worry about, but can you really take that chance? Prentiss and I will go to the clinic and see if anyone remembers a man talking to the victims. Why don't you guys go sit down with the good doctor and find out just what he was up to last night." It was Morgan playing the voice of reason now.

"I just hope that whoever is behind us doesn't get steps on us, because we were too busy ruining a good mans' reputation." Sophie wasn't sure how much of this was Spencer's inability to deal with jealousy and how much was factual, she knew one thing Spencer Reid was nothing if not thoroughly and accurate in his reasoning.


	4. Chapter 4 Down memory lane

**Chapter 4- Down Memory Lane**

"_love of mine some day you will die  
But I'll be close behind  
I'll follow you into the dark"_

-Death Cab for Cutie

Sophie was not going to enjoy this interview, she hated the idea of suspecting someone who she had shared so much of herself with but she couldn't really ignore some of the evidence. Reid was more than a little apprehensive about this, what if he found out things he didn't really want to know? He had always seen Sophie as a beautiful, intelligent woman_, his_ beautiful intelligent woman and though intellectually he knew she must have dated other men, he had felt protective and possessive of her since the first time she kissed him.

What he was not admitting to himself was that he was terrified of losing her, he had never been so happy with someone. As they made their way down to the lab where Dr. Noble had been sequestered all morning, Sophie looked up at him. "Just let me handle this one, okay?" Reid knew it was not a question, she had a brilliant way of manipulating a conversation so everything she planned appeared optional to you even though you knew it was distinctly not.

Prentiss and Morgan were just pulling up to the clinic Sophie had told them about. "Do you think Reid's jealous of her ex?" Prentiss looked at Morgan to see his reaction. "Reid isn't what you'd call "experienced" with women, he's bound to feel intimidated by anyone trying to move in on his woman." Morgan looked back at Prentiss and was genuinely surprised to see he was laughing. "What? What'd I say?" he stammered as he got of the suv. "His woman? Oh man some things just never change with guys." Prentiss smiled to herself.

At least three working girls were hanging out in front of the building smoking, Emily decided to start with them. "Hey, have you guys ever seen this man hanging around here, maybe talking to the girls?" Prentiss asked as she held up Max Noble's picture from his Georgetown University badge. "We see a lot of guys lady, what's this one done, the wife mad or something?" a girl in fishnets and a bright neon green mini dress popped her gum at the agents.

"He's actually going around killing, upstanding young women like yourself. So maybe you wanna take a closer look?" Morgan had struck the right nerve as the girl and her friends took a long look at the photo. "He's not a john, he hangs out with that other Doctor that volunteers here, Dr. Jabba, or Jubba or something like that, always trying to get the girls to join this program, you know poppin' out kids for money?" She kept popping her gum and Prentiss winced with every pop. "This man? In the photo he's the one trying to get girls to deliver babies for money?" The girl looked at him as if he had just asked her to dance while wearing clown shoes and a propeller hat. "Yeah that guy and Dr. Jubba, always here like every weekend and sometimes on Thursday afternoons." Morgan happened to look at Prentiss and though she was wincing from the sound of the girls incessant popping, he knew just by the look in her eyes that's he was going to have to be the one to call Reid.

Reid's phone rang as Sophie stepped into the lab, he took the call in the hallway.

"Max, how is the lab work coming, find the cure for cancer yet?" She greeted him like she always had in college. _He remembered her coming to visit him in the lab after a hard day of protesting some cause or another, she had always been his hero in that way, never afraid of anything, even when they were taken hostage in Honduras_. "Interesting you should ask Agent Segura, this man though insane he might be, has made a revolutionary breakthrough in cell revitalization and proliferation." He looked up at her and realized the smile had faded. "What were you doing at the movies last night Max? Don't try to argue, we have your car on film, leaving the theatre, so you have a choice, you can lie to me or you can tell me the truth and try to get in front of this." She had on her cop face and this was the last person in the world she would've wanted to use it with.

"Sophie, you have to believe me I didn't do this, I couldn't do this." He looked up from her gaze to the door, when it whipped open and Reid uncharacteristically charged through. "Tell me Dr. Noble, why is it you and Dr. Jaffe chose the clinic near McPhearson square ? Is it because you didn't think women like that mattered to anyone, that they wouldn't be missed? Please tell me Doctor, do you instill the same values in your students?" Reid was literally spitting venom by the end. Sophie looked from one to the other. "Max, you didn't." She didn't have to look at him, the pregnant silence in the air made it clear that he had nothing to defend himself with.

"I never knew that he would hurt anyone, he came to me and told me that this would change the world, he never told me anyone would get hurt; I honestly believed that we had the same goal." His seemed sincere and his eyes were red with tears now. Reid was not moved. "And what goal was that?' Noble looked up at him from the chair he had collapsed into. "Don't you understand that this technology, this breakthrough would allow us to manipulate the type, growth, proliferation and size of cells, this could be the answers to turning off genetic defects, to curing cancer, when Homeland Security and the Army approached me I couldn't turn down the opportunity. They never told me anyone would die, they just said I'd be working on making sure soldiers didn't contract deadly diseases in the field." Reid and Sophie both looked at one another.

"You're telling me this is a military sanctioned experiment? Did you know they were experimenting with anthrax?" Sophie looked down at the man she thought she had known. "I suspected, but I didn't have proof; when I brought up the ethical problems, they told me not to worry about it, that I had nothing to worry about that everyone in the program was a volunteer, Sophie these people they've invested millions they'll do anything to protect this. I thought I was doing good work, work that would save people."

"Max, how could you not tell me? You knew exactly what this was when you saw me last night! You son of a bitch, you knew, you know who he is this whole time and now some poor girl is out there about to die because you weren't man enough to stand up for what's right, just like you couldn't in Honduras, you were a coward then and the stink hasn't worn off." She didn't know what to think anymore, one of the few people she had allowed herself to confide in, had betrayed everything they had believed in. She had to leave the room before she killed him with her bare hands, the rage she felt remembering that night was almost too much to endure. She flashed back to that dark room somewhere in an underground bunker where she and the other aid workers had been held so many years ago. _I won't do this; I won't go back there over and over. I'm alive, I won, I'm here and they're not and that's all that matters._

She tried to catch her breath in the hallway, she was remembering that night whether she wanted to or not, seeing that girls face no matter how hard she tried to block it out, she had only been 10 or 12, her life ended because of politics and hatred. She looked up when the door made a sound. "He gave up Dr. Jaffe's practice address. Morgan and Prentiss are on their way there now. He still says he didn't know about the anthrax, he claims Dr. Jaffe spoon fed him information on the subjects, he never knew what was actually being given to them." Reid had hoped this would be comforting to her. "He said it himself Spence, he suspected, that should have been enough for him to stop, to blow the whistle, to do something, anything to help those girls, he let them die!" Reid would have given anything for her to have felt this way a few hours ago and now he could almost see Noble's point, so many people could be helped by this technology and on the other hand in any governments hands it could be used as a weapon of catastrophic destruction.

Reid suddenly remembered something Noble had said: _"they'll do anything to protect it."_ Reid wondered if that meant taking out agents who were about to open a case into a classified military experiment. He wasn't taking the chance with Morgan and Prentiss's lives. "Hey kid." Reid was never happier to be insulted. "Morgan don't enter the building until they've swept it for explosives and toxins, it could be rigged." He breathed out the words more than said them. "Kid, someone up there must love me, cuz I just had my hand on the door knob. I'll call ERT and tell them to bring HAZMAT equipment."

"This isn't the whole story. I can feel it, Max left something out. I know he did." She charged back into the room where the broken man was sobbing into his hands. "Don't you dare cry at me, you don't care about those women, you're just an arrogant bastard who thinks human lives are expendable, it must be a side effect of growing up spoiled and privileged. If you didn't know about the anthrax, what were you doing down at the theatre last night?" He looked surprised at her question, "The girl she called me, at my office at the university, she said she was in a lot of pain, said her stomach was killing her so I went down there with a dose of Demerol, Jaffe must've engineered the bacteria to interact with common pain killers, ones you would see in a hospital." He looked ten times smaller to Reid. "Why would he do that?" Sophie asked. But it was Reid who answered. "Because it's common to treat anthrax poisoning with antibiotics and painkillers, this would accelerate the toxin and make it appear like an overdose." Max was trying desperately to recover any ounce of respect from Sophie. "I didn't know she would die like that, it all just happened so quickly. I didn't know what to do."

"No Max, she was alive when we found her, barely breathing you could have saved her, but for some reason you just keep saving your own worthless skin." She could have spit on him.

Prentiss and Morgan had just been cleared to enter the building. "There's no trace levels of airborne toxins, but you guys should still wear protective gear, in case of liquid contamination. The body's gonna have to be transported to our lab, it's a clean room." Jefferies from the ERT told them through the yellow space man suit required in his line of work. "You found a body? Was there any I.D. on it?" Morgan asked while climbing into the polynylon jumper. Jefferies took off his helmet, his head sweaty making his jet hair stick to his head. "It's more like the lack of I.D., you should see for yourself." Morgan noticed Prentiss eyeing Jefferies as he stripped out of his HAZMAT suit.

As Prentiss and Morgan made their way through the reception area, it looked like a normal fertility clinic, complete with uncomfortable waiting room chairs, the decades old magazines and the ubiquitous candy dish. It wasn't until they reach Exam room 3 that found anything disturbed. A man was lying back on the reclining exam chair, perfectly preserved, except for the fact that his entire face was missing, burned clean off. "Morgan, look, the fingers are the same." When he looked down he saw someone had taken great care to erase this mans' identity. "I don't think Dr. Jaffe is going to be picking up any call girls any time soon."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Plausible deniability**

"The vanity of the sciences. Physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the science of **ethics** will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences."

-Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)

Reid put the phone back in his pocket, and was about to tell Sophie that the only person who could corroborate her friends' story was now dead. He never got the chance as several very large men in unimaginative suits invaded the hallway outside the lab. "Dr. Spencer Reid?" one of them asked in an alpha male low sonic boom voice. "Yes?" he was on edge now, these were not agents with the bureau they had a whole different sense of entitlement to them. "If you and Dr. Segura would come with us please? We will escort you to DHS, where we will be transporting Dr. Noble." Reid knew by their lack of expressions that they were not so much asking as informing. A loud crash interrupted Reid's thoughts; it had come from inside the lab. "Let go of me, you overstuffed gorilla! It's not my fault you didn't identify yourself!" One of the DHS muscled agents had walked past Reid into the lab to retrieve Noble and Sophie, he had obviously underestimated her reaction as Reid saw he was nursing a quickly forming black eye and doubled over trying to recover from a hit below the belt. Max Noble was being escorted out by the third agent, he looked at Reid desperate for help.

"Doctors? Agent Holmes from the DHS. I'm sorry for the abruptness of this meeting, but it is a matter of national security and you need to be debriefed ASAP." A much smaller man had appeared in the hallway. "Why were we not told about this operation in the beginning? We have wasted precious time and man hours and now some poor girl is out there dying and possibly infecting people with anthrax, please tell me this isn't some jurisdictional pissing contest because I'd hate to think you jeopardized American lives for a DHS ego trip." Sophie felt betrayed by Max for not telling her in the first place, but she understood he had no spine but the Department of Homeland Security had told them they would share all available information with bureau and to hold something like this back was not only disrespectful but incredibly dangerous.

"The DHS is not in the business of doing the FBI's work for them Agent. This operation was on a need to know basis, it has costs tax payers millions of dollars and can potentially save thousands of servicemen and women, I don't think I need to tell you I value those outcomes more than your over blown sense of ethics, ethics can get soldiers and civilians killed, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for the greater good." Reid looked at the average sized man and knew he had secrets worth dying for and he also knew he would sacrifice both of theirs to keep them.

"Are you aware that the experiment has gotten out of control? That there may be an infected person out there right now endangering those very people you are trying to protect?" Reid was had become heated at his sanctimonious speech.

"Calm down agents, this strain of bacteria replicates itself in the host like a cancer and when it has reached critical mass, it has been engineered to lay dormant once the spores reach critical mass and usually by that time the host has been dead for several hours, it is not communicable to anyone from the host at the time of death." Sophie thought he actually looked pleased with himself and she felt she would vomit at the arrogance.

"Agent Holmes, have you anticipated the bacteria mutating and forming a communicable strain? Even if the spores lay dormant after death, there is still a young woman out there who is going to die if we don't get to her soon." Reid had thought this would spur a sense of action in the DHS personnel, but they just continued to look on as though this was business as usual.

"Dr. Reid, every eventuality has been planned for and the containment team have been dispatched. What the DHS needs now is cooperation from the bureau and its agents." Sophie knew what was coming next and she was determined not to let it happen on her watch. "I won't cover up illegal and unethical practices, this isn't about security anymore, this is about humanity and no level of security is worth arbitrarily taking someone's life." She stared him down knowing he could ruin her.

"Agent Segura, you have a promising career ahead of you in the Organized Crime unit here, many of these cases require DHS involvement and cooperation, it would be such a shame to have to point out your inappropriate relationship with a junior agent to your superiors." _'So there it is, the threat to my career and the person I care about the most'_

Before Sophie could respond, Hotch began speaking, she hadn't even heard him open the door. "Do you really think you can intimidate my agents with vague threats and unfounded allegations? I believe the Attorney General of the United States would be very interested in how DHS funds are being misappropriated to fund dangerous and illegal experiments on civilian women, he might see it as a miscarriage of justice. I hear he's running for office next term, it might just be the case he needs to hang his hat on. Now you will debrief my agents here, and you will allow us to continue our questioning of Dr. Noble when we are done with him, we will release him into your custody." Hotch didn't have to tell Holmes that these terms were non-negotiable and though the stiff DHS agent didn't look pleased with the idea of letting Hotch run the show, he backed off.

"Reid, we need to talk." Hotch gave him a look that suggested he had bad news.

"What is it Hotch?" Reid tried to keep his voice down as the DHS goon squad were still in the room.

"Garcia worked her magic and she found out that Max Noble and Agent Segura were taken hostage in Honduras in late 2005.."

"Yes, she mentioned they were both on a humanitarian aid mission." Reid was afraid of where this was going.

"Reid, Max Noble was sent into Honduras to set up a medical clinic to start drug trials for this kind of super strain of anthrax, it appears the rest of the group was there legitimately but his grant came directly from DHS funds, do you think there is anyway that she had any prior knowledge or involvement?" _Reid's became overcome by a flood of emotions, everything he knew about her told him no she couldn't have been part of this? There was definitely something she was not telling him about Honduras but he had a feeling it didn't have anything to do with this.  
_

"Hotch, based on what I know I don't believe she did." Reid was not used to placing his faith in his emotions, but for the first time Reid ignored his head listened to his gut.

Sophie was being closely followed by the DHS squad into the interrogation room in the BAU offices. They were insisted on being let into the interview room and Hotch though he was wary of them, thought it best to accommodate them on this matter.

"Max, everything, everything you know right now, don't leave anything out, don't skim over anything, don't you dare lie to me." She was incensed at him, at his cowardice, at his blatant disregard for his ethical obligations, he was a medical doctor, he'd sworn to do no harm, had these just been empty words to him?

"First you have to understand that I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought I would be saving people, they never told me that I would hurting anyone, they had me running tests on what I thought were all ready infected people. They told me that I was trying to save them and by understanding this strain it would save countless lives here and all over the world, they told me I was doing the work of a patriot. They approached me in college, then when we planned the trip to Honduras, they said it would be a perfect time to start testing a new vaccine, that it would change the third world." He looked up at her with bloodshot eyes, he knew she would never forgive him, it wasn't in her to understand moral failings.

"In Honduras? It wasn't a malaria outbreak was it? You're telling me that you infected impoverished people with a deadly toxin just to see what happened? You were supposed to be there to help people Max, you're a doctor, they trusted you with their lives. God, I can't count the times so many people thanked you for the medicine you gave their children, they thought you were helping them. We went there to bring hope to people who didn't have that luxury, are you telling me that you went there knowing you were going to kill people?" Sophie couldn't take this anymore, she pushed her chair away from the table, she looked at him one last time. "You know whatever they do to you for compromising your mission, will never be enough to make the evil you've done right, you traded people's lives for your vanity Max, that stain can never be washed off, it's there forever." She felt like the world had turned upside down, as if the pole were suddenly reversed as she sat in some random chair in the middle of the BAU and relived Honduras, she wasn't sure if she would ever stop reliving it.

Reid had noticed something throughout the interview, he replayed the tape. Noble never met her eye until after he had finished a sentence, he was looking down and to the left when he talked about being told about the objectives of his work. _'He's lying, he knew what they were doing. He knew what the objective was and he went along with it.'_ Reid reviewed the tape one more time every time Sophie had mentioned Honduras, Noble's face had a slight twitch, it was even more noticeable when she had mentioned his Hippocratic oath. He had to find Hotch.


	6. Chapter 6Heart of Darkness

_**"It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog."**_  
** Joseph Conrad **

Reid was running up the steps to the unit chiefs office. As he entered the room, Hotch was just putting down the phone with a grim look. "I think all this was his idea Hotch, he wouldn't look at Sophie when she mentioned his role as a doctor, he bristled at the mention of the people who trusted him, he avoided eye contact with her the whole time he was telling her story, he started this Hotch, he's been behind this the whole time." Reid had said it all in about one breath and after running up the stairs he was breathing a little heavier so he couldn't be sure he'd heard Hotch right when he said. "I know Reid, I just got off the phone with the Commander in charge of that research mission in Honduras, according to him Dr. Noble was not authorized to test anything but new malaria drugs, he was actually going to be pulled from the mission due to a psyche eval. But through his connections was able to stay on." Hotch and Reid looked at one another and Reid's eyes searched for Sophie in the bull pen, she was sitting innocently on his desk talking to Morgan. Garcia had run into the room on breakneck heels.

"You guys have to see this. I was checking his financial he's been receiving over 15 million dollars a year from one of the largest pharmaceutical companies who was using a dummy corporation to pay him what had appeared to be dividends from stock accounts. They covered it up by some puny encryption code that I blew right through, but the really icky part is he's been receiving this money even before the ill fated trip to Honduras, these series of deposits go all the way back to 2005 when Dr. Kevorkian over there was still in the country and in college." Reid searched his brain, his subconscious knowing this was significant; hadn't Sophie said something about Noble starting a children's medical program in college? Had he been killing people for that long? He would have to ask her and it wasn't going to be a happy conversation, she may have unwittingly been involved in harming the very people she was trying to protect.

He made his way down to the bull pen, Sophie had gone to get a cup of strong, bad tasting coffee from the break room. He was trying his best to phrase this question in the most delicate manner but no matter how he said it in his head, he knew she wouldn't take it well. The curvy chicana was walking back towards him, she looked tired and had the look of someone's whose world had been changed forever, and Reid knew she would blame herself but he had to ask her. "Sophie, do you remember about the program you were telling me helped Dr. Noble start while you were both in college?" he asked hesitantly. She looked back at him nonplussed. "Yes, we would go into underprivileged neighborhoods and administer vaccines the kids needed to be able to go to school, some of them would otherwise never have been able to enroll." the look of horror that came over her face made Reid wish for just a moment that she wasn't so quick on the uptake. "That son of a bitch!" she growled and the entire bull pen went silent as she rushed up the stairs to the interrogation room where he was being held.

Through the glass window she could see the man she thought she once knew. His head was lying on the table, he had fallen asleep. That alone rang the death knell of her faith in him, an innocent man, a man who had been an unwitting pawn in killing hundreds maybe thousands of people wouldn't be able to sleep, any man who had a sense of empathy in him would be haunted by those faces which he had doomed to death. She entered the room stealthily, something had overtaken her it was more pure than rage and a thousands times more powerful, she was full to the brim with righteous fury. She quietly walked up behind him and slammed her fist down on the table. "You killed them, you did it and you knew, you knew what _they _were doing!" she looked almost at him willing him to tell her it had all been a mistake that none of this was possible, that somehow there'd been a mistaken.

Reid was watching from the other side of the glass, Hotch and Morgan had come running when they'd seen the blur that was Sophie enter the interrogation room. "Reid, man don't you think we should get her out of there?" Morgan was worried not only about how this was going to affect her but this was very much outside the standard operating procedure. Reid tilted his head and observed Noble's expression. "No, he has something he's dying to tell her, he can't help but flaunt what he's done and especially to her, look at the way he's holding her gaze now, something's changed like the façade he had to put on before is over. She's the one person he'll confess to, he wants to do it to hurt her." Reid said the pangs of guilt inching up his spine and settling back down in his stomach.

His blood shot eyes looked up from the table, almost manic. " I guess it's time you knew I lowered myself to you to get things done. I rolled in bed with one of you so I wouldn't be noticeable. Frankly you people disgust me, poor, dirty, useless masses forever breeding and multiplying like roaches." he saw the shock on her face, the instant of embarrassment and then the fury returned. "Those people were never going to amount to anything, they were nothing but drains on the system, on people like my father, everyone always expecting you to hand out what you had to claw your way to get. At least they didn't die in vain like they would have without me." He was so far gone into his racist delusion that he believed what he said whole heartedly.

"Without you Max, they'd still be alive, they would have a chance to become something great, but you took that away from them Max, you stole their future and you made me an accomplice to the destruction of my own people, you're lucky that there are people watching or I just might shoot you in fact I haven't decided if I'm not yet." she touched her sidearm making everyone watching jump. Reid had to hold them back. "She's not going to shoot him, it's to scare him, she knows he's a coward."

"What you're going to do Max, is you're going to make a full confession, you're going to write down everywhere you have been, everyone who paid you, everyone who knew about what you were doing and you're going to do it now or I start in your kneecaps and work my way slowly up." She wasn't sure that she didn't mean it and she almost wished he would test her. But he acted as she had predicted and started scribbling on the pad she had placed in front of him. "You'll never actually get these people Sophie, they have too many friends, too much good campaign money comes from these people, and the army isn't going to just hand over classified documents to the FBI, now are they? I'll never see the inside of a jail cell." he was smug and cocky when he looked up from the legal pad.

Reid walked into the room to both their surprise. "Actually Dr. Noble Commander Hendricks has agreed to declassify documents pertaining to your mission, and the Department of Homeland Security is on their way up to take custody of you." Sophie looked at read, questioningly. "You see Sophie, they wouldn't leave me out to dry, they know I know too much about things they do behind closed doors." Sophie looked back to Reid as if to ask him if this were true. "I think you misunderstand me Dr. Noble, Homeland Security Agents are outside to take you to their detention center, they're charging you with domestic terrorism, and crimes against humanity. They found two more women in the clinic that you and Dr. Jaffe were operating out of, both women died upon arrival at Georgetown. It seems your usefulness to them has run out." Reid looked at Sophie and she knew her part was over. They walked out of the room together to let Noble stew in his own cowardice while the utter terror of what was about to happen to him set in. Sophie couldn't help but turn around once last time. "By the way Max, every time you had to "lower yourself" to me, you were a complete and utter disappointment but I imagine you'll have plenty of time to practice on your cell mate." She felt the smallest measure of pride regained. Reid smiled to himself and tried desperately not to laugh out loud.

Hotch and Morgan were waiting outside the room with the Homeland Security goon squad that had descended on the BAU earlier. Agent Homes was with them. Hotch was talking to him in a hushed voice. Agent Holmes spoke first. "We had been alerted to Noble's unsanctioned experiments by Dr. Jaffe, he had met with one of our agent just days before he was murdered, Noble must have followed him. You must understand that even those this work was illegal, and completely unsanctioned it's potential usefulness was too much to shut down the project." he looked at Hotch and then to Reid, he never saw Sophie's fist reach back and pummel into his face. She on top of him before she knew what she was doing, all the anger, the guilt and pain of those hundred of people who had died for nothing more than a better profit margin took hold of her and wouldn't let go. She was still swinging as Morgan pulled her off the DHS agent. "I think it's best if you take your prisoner and leave now Agent Holmes." Hotch didn't think decking Holmes had been the best thing for Sophie to do, but he definitely understood her motivation. Without a word the trumped up suit and his government gorilla suits left the BAU with Noble in tow.

Sophie was down in the bull pen, with Prentiss and JJ who were trying to calm her down. Reid wasn't sure what to say, or what to do. He was the person to come to when you had math problems or needed a geographic profile, if you needed statistics on murderers, he was not the person you came went to for a heart to heart. He noticed she got up from his chair and walked toward the outdoor patio on the side building that overlooked the city. He decided to follow her.

Her hair long and curly, the one thing she refused to give up for the sake of her career was blowing in the wind. She was leaning over the railing watching people come and go at the main entrance. "I'm sorry." was all that came out, he wanted to tell her how much he admired her empathy, her determination to help other people but the words were lost to him.

She let a small window of silence seep in before she spoke. "You know, the whole time we were in that cave in Honduras I just thought he was scared, and even then I hated him for not helping that little girl. I could hear her screams through the night, they hurt her over and over and laughed about it. The rebels had tied up all the women aid workers and were slowly going through them one by one, when they took her, I tried to squeeze through the cuffs, I pushed so hard I cut my wrists. I saw the blood run down my arm and when I looked over at Max I noticed he had some slack in the rope they'd used on him. I begged him to cut himself loose and grab one of the AK-47's they'd left lying around and stop them once and for all. He looked at me as if I was crazy, like the very thought was ludicrous and the whole time I thought he was just a coward, but now I know it's because he truly did value his life above anyone else's. We were just collateral damage to him. I should've seen through it, I should've known then what he was."

"You can't blame yourself for the actions of a deranged mind. He is a coward, he was someone who was an expert at hiding his true nature, he's probably been doing it since a very young age. His whole life revolved around appearances, looking like what he should, all the while hiding who he really was. But you, you've dedicated your life to helping people, to bettering the world, you can't discount all the good you've done because of this."

She thought about this for a moment. "I just don't know how I forgive myself for brining those people right to him, delivering them up to their deaths. I can't help but wonder if I had been just a bit savvier then maybe those people would still be alive, they truth is their families will never know what really happened to them, Holmes will never declassify this, it's too embarrassing to their offices and to his major campaign contributor. I had your girl Garcia check into Holmes for me, turns out he's running for the Senate this year with affordable medication as his platform, guess who his biggest supporter is?"

"The same company that paid for Noble's experiments." they both knew this would never go to trial now.

"All those people dead and no one responsible for it, justice isn't always served is it?"

"Noble is going to prison and he won't get the luxury of a trial as a terrorist, he ultimately is the one who committed the murders."

"Spencer, you know as well as I do, that they'll keep him there for a few months, but they aren't going to let a resource like Max Noble go to waste rotting in prison, they'll take him out of the barn when they need him and in this climate of bio-weapon development it won't be too long before they do. I guess I have to send Hotch a basket for not ripping into me back there and Morgan too." she smiled.

"I think Morgan and Hotch aren't really the basket types." Reid said unsure really.

"Okay, well then how 'bout a round of drinks? We've all been up for over 24 hours and I'm sure we could all use a little brain Novocain at a local watering hole?" the sun had set about five minutes ago and the beauty of orange orb had been comforting to her. She was going back up to her office to gather the case files she would need to go over tonight, since she would need to get back to her duties tomorrow and hadn't had time to go over what her team had gathered. As she thumbed through the reports she realized how boring some organized crime stake outs were. One log listed nothing but two soldiers for a local Asian gang going in and out of a house for twelve hours to smoke. She felt bad for whoever was out on this one. She had countless filed in her satchel bag and at least ten in her arms, so when she entered the elevator she didn't immediately see him standing there.

Reid was waiting for her down in the garage next to the elevator, the last time he'd seen her she was in her office gathering files to take home. He went back and checked her Jeep but she hadn't been there. He decided to go back upstairs to see if she needed help with anything, as the elevator opened several sheets of paper whooshed out of the door, files were strewn everywhere, crime scene photos from several cases mixed up on the floor. He stopped the door from closing again with his hand as he saw it, the Polaroid was taped to the elevator. Sophie's face looked back at him in terror, with a line of blood running along her neckline, she was still alive in this picture but he couldn't be sure that was still the case. "This is Special Agent Spencer Reid with the BAU, I need this building locked down, no one gets in or out, an agent has been taken from the elevator on the southwest corner of the garage, they may still be in the building." Reid knew this was wishful thinking because the garage was underground, whoever took her could've gotten out any number of ways but not without being seen, he needed Garcia.

He rode the elevator back up to the BAU, he normally preferred the stairs but he knew he had to preserve the scene. There were several places where Sophie had bled onto the floor, they were droplets, Reid though infuriated at someone hurting her, realized this meant she was most likely alive. Smears of finger prints were everywhere, most likely hers, she wouldn't have gone without a struggle, her holster laid on the floor, she had instinctively reached for her gun, but hadn't gotten a shot off in time. As the doors opened, he hit the stop button in the elevator and barked orders at nearest person he could find. "Don't let anyone touch this, it's a crime scene now." the terrified young intern could only nod his head.

He hoped Garcia hadn't left yet, he went bounding into her office so violently he scared her literally out of her seat. "Sweet Linux kernels, what is it Boy Genius?" Garcia had seen him looming over her from the ground, she pushed herself up onto her chair, he glasses askew from the fall she'd taken. She was in the middle of adjusting them when he told her the frightening news. "Sophie's been taken, I need to know by who. Can you give me a visual on the elevator outside the BAU?" Garcia's hands automatically reached for the keyboard and a unbelievably fast series of clicks later Reid as looking at the footage inside the elevator, the screen had no sound but Reid could hear her scream in her head when he saw the video, she had struggled, and tried to pull her weapon but he'd overpowered her and gotten control of the sidearm. His hood was up, but he'd made the mistake of looking at the camera when he noticed Sophie looking into the lens, she knew it was there. "Garcia, blow up this frame and play it back." he thought she was saying something. As the playback rolled Garcia looked at Reid, she felt terrible for him. "She's calling my name. She called my name when he.." Garcia and Reid watched in horror as he held the knife to her throat and droplets of blood stained her shirt and the carpet below. As the digital video went on, Sophie's captor revealed his face. Staring back at Reid was a very angry, very determined looking Max Noble.


End file.
